Mission News

Growing up in the suburbs of San Salvador, El Salvador, young Carlos faced a grim future. And it’s no wonder: as one of the most violent countries in Central America, El Salvador has entrapped nearly 60,000 young people into gang-related and other criminal activity that becomes almost impossible...

At the height of Central America’s migrant crisis, tens of thousands of people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras fled to the United States border, desperately seeking refuge from brutal violence and unbearable poverty. In 2016 alone, nearly 47,000 unaccompanied children (and more than...

Dozens of families live on the outskirts of Santiago, Chile, crammed into “Camp Giappone” — a filthy shantytown built with materials scavenged from a nearby landfill. “You can breathe the segregation and inequality here; it’s as acrid as burning garbage,” observe our Salesian...

In Tanzania, safe drinking water is scarce. Residents who do not live near one of the country’s three major lakes — Victoria, Tanganyika, or Malawi — must rely on water that is often contaminated with toxic waste. This situation disproportionately affects the more than 18 million people who...

In India, approximately 450 million people — or 37.5 percent of the country’s population — have streamed from the rural countryside into major cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata in recent years. Most of these “internal migrants” are between the ages of 16 and 40, searching for better...

As Hurricane Irma barreled through the Caribbean and toward southern Florida, our missionaries in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Belle Glade prepared for catastrophic destruction. Thankfully, the Salesian-run programs in Irma’s path — and the children and families they serve...

Orphaned and just 10 years old, Sanjoy was “rescued” from the streets of Kolkata by a family who ultimately used him as a domestic slave. Unpaid, unfed, and emotionally and physically abused, Sanjoy saw no choice but to run away. He returned to the streets, living among the countless other...